AN ASSESSMENT OF MEDICAL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PROFESSIONALISM IN HEALTH CARE AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY, HUE UNIVERSITY

Professionalism has become one of the core competencies in medical education which will shape physicians’s behavior in the future to provide high-quality and patient-centered care services. Objectives: To assess the perceptions and attitudes of medical students regarding professionalism in health care. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out with 717 second-year and fifth-year medical students of Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University. Results: Students’ perception on professionalism was not high, at 3.85 out of 5 points. In which, “respect” was the domain having highest score and “communication skills” was the lowest recognition domain (4.15 and 3.54 out of 5, respectively). Preclinical students had higher perception than students having clinical experiences in all aspects of professionalism (p<0.05). Conclusion: Priority should be given to train professionalism and communication skills through the early clinical exposure program and hidden curriculum across all years of medical education program. Furthermore, the core aspects of professionalism are needed to be consistently identified and evaluated in the training program among medical universities in Vietnam